daily photo: Feb. 26th

This is a bottle inexpensive go to wine for nights like this one where I’m doing nothing much more complicated than baking the Pistachio and Chorizo Cake from David Lebovitz. (It’s cooling now and smells amazing.) But I’m not here to tell you about the cake, I’m here to tell you about this silly situation I find myself in at my local market that involves the buying of said wine. We’re lucky enough to live really close to a happy natural foods grocery that I end up in most every day picking up ingredients for one thing or another. We tend to buy wine one bottle at a time when we know we’ll want it with dinner and happily the market has a small but reliable selection. I don’t buy wine every day, but it seems that when I am buying wine I get the same checkout girl. Every single time. If I’m in for some emergency butter she’s nowhere to be seen, but if I have a cart full of groceries and a bottle of wine it’s hilariously inevitable that I’ll end up in her line. I’ve become hyper aware of this and it’s made my Raised Catholic Shame kick into overdrive. She’s lovely and friendly and I’m sure completely unaware of me, but still I cringe a bit when I find myself once again buying booze in her checkout aisle. I have not seen her in the store in weeks but tonight my haul of no-preservatives chorizo, unsalted pistachios, organic dried tomatoes and sesame seeds from the bulk aisle included some table wine and guess whose checkout line I found myself in?

Also seen in the frame are my iPhone and the trusty Jambox speaker that I’ve come to adore because it lets me hear things over the noise of washing dishes. It’s sturdy and has rubberized top and bottom surfaces, it’s wireless and connects to your music source with Bluetooth, and has a recharegable battery. I carry it around the kitchen with me and couldn’t like it more. We have Gray Hex but I sort of wanted the Red Dot, except our kitchen is filled with orange accents and I fear I’m not the sort that can pull together orange and red.

(disclosure: Just above are some Amazon Affiliate links, which means a small percentage is sent my way if you just happen to buy the speaker after checking it out. The money helps cover hosting costs for this here website. No pressure, you know.)

I have that same problem at my local Fred Meyer. It’s a combination of being the main person who ever goes to by beer or wine for me, the boyfriend, and our friends, and almost always going through the u-scan lines. Whenever the screen comes up telling me that I have to wait for someone to check my ID, one of the two checkers I ever see says, “don’t worry about, I got it” and overrides it. I’m starting to feel like an alcoholic, and I’m worried that the checkers are starting to think that too!

My birthday this year was on the Super Bowl, I went to store to by a cake (more for my son than for me), and a 18 pack for my husband and friends that were over watching the game. When the cashier asked for my ID she said happy birthday and I can only imagine what she thought my plans were!